What’s hot: June 2018

Just About Travel tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world

Book an appy holiday
Friends fed up with the time consuming stress of trying to book a cheap holiday online have launched a What’s App based travel agent – step forward My Swft – and it’s free.
The brainchild of Tom Pain, 31, Peter Rawlinson, 32, and Jasper Cox, 29, who met at Durham University, the app allows users to message key information on their holiday and receive an itinerary and estimated cost per head– including the cheapest flights available online that day and a place to stay – within three hours.
My Swft has a no booking fee and can be used to book group skiing trips and European city breaks, with a summer holiday feature launching soon. For the full low-down, visit myswft.com

Cruise Line ditches plasticAll ‘unnecessary single-use plastic’ will be banned on Hurtigruten ships from 2 July 2018. The cruise line, which wants to be the first to go plastic free, admitted that it gets through 960,000 plastic straws, 390,000 plastic glasses and 826,000 pats of butter in single-use wrapping every year.

Canine friends now welcome in WindermereThere won’t be a need for kennels anymore as canine friends are now welcome at a popular Lake District hotel.Labradors, terriers, spaniels and plenty of other dog species can all now stay the night at The Hydro hotel in Bowness-on-Windermere. The Helm Road hotel has created a number of pet friendly rooms meaning owners will not have to worry about using the services of kennels.Jodi Masterson, managing director at Squire Hotels, said: “As a dog owner myself, it isn’t always easy to find availability at a kennels, so we are pleased to offer dog owners the opportunity to bring their pets with them. Each room will be thoroughly cleaned after each stay and they’re also be a number of treats in there meaning the dog will feel at home!”Yummy food and a comfy bed will be part of the pet friendly rooms along with poop bags, toys and food bowls.

Hotel Eurostar

Eurostar is now selling hotel rooms alongside train tickets. Prices for two nights plus travel start at £126pp in Paris and £195pp in Amsterdam. Brussels works out at the best value at £110pp.

Making memories

Tour operator TUI wants its guests to put down their cameraphones and pick up a pencil to help them remember their holidays better. TUI will be handing out Sketch to Etch kits at its Sensatori resorts this summer on the advice of Professional Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at Oxford University. According to Spence, drawing activates more senses than taking a photo meaning holiday memories should linger for longer.

Odyssey to OzNewly released figures have revealed that Australia’s tourism industry is booming, with the country boasting an impressive 8,263,000 total tourist arrivals in 2016, a 37 per cent increase from 2012 figures.The figures collected by Australia holiday specialist, Austravel, revealed that an increase in Australian tourism rates have trumped both the UK and US, with the UK seeing an increase of 21 per cent and the US, two per cent compared to Australia’s 37 per cent rise.
The boom in tourism is also boosting Australia’s economy. Figures released by Australia’s Tourism Minister, Steve Ciobo, have revealed that international tourism has brought in a staggering $41.3 billion in the 12 months to December 2017, a six per cent growth on the previous year.

Get appy: part twoThere’s another new mobile travel app on the market: take a bow Travamigos which enables backpackers to connect with like-minded travellers all over the world. The free app features a secure messaging system so travellers heading for the same destination can form groups and chat to each other before they arrive.Travamigos is available on the iOS App Store as a free download. An Android version is currently under development.

Travelling in your 30sWhen it comes to travelling the world, it turns out that your 30s are the best years to take a gap year, according to new research by travel agent Florida4Less.A study of 2,000 UK adults by Florida4Less looked into the ages that people feel they would get the most value and enjoyment out of visiting certain bucket list destinations and found that 37 is the most popular age when looking at the average age chosen for each destination.People seem to agree that travelling and seeing the world when you’re a little more established is likely to be more fulfilling, contrary to the popular concept of taking a gap year during or just after university.

London for lessTransport provider megabus.com recently launched London’s first low-cost sightseeing tour enabling visitors to the capital to view 50 of its best known sights, for as little as £1! The new service does a circuit of London without stopping, so customers get to see the sights– step forward Big Ben, the Tower of London and the London Eye – rather than waiting for other customers at each stop, all from the comfort and convenience of a megasightseeing.com bus.Tours departing every hour from three different locations across the city – visit Megabus website for more info.

Brits abroad are failing to master local tipping etiquetteA poll of 3,000 holiday-makers revealed the uncertainty many feel when away from home, which sees them over-tipping by £78 during the typical nine-day break.More than one third admitted to lacking in confidence on how to tip abroad, with one quarter knowingly over-tipping.Just 16 per cent of British tourists know a 10 per cent tip is expected for a taxi ride in South Africa, with a mere one in five aware it is common to round up a bar bill in Norway to the nearest 10.Chris King, Travel Expert at comparethemarket.com which commissioned the research, said: “Heading on holiday should be a real highlight for everyone in need of a well-deserved break. However, it seems millions of Brits are frequently getting themselves tied up in currency conundrums and it’s costing them their sanity.”